How to Prepare for the GEC Exam

August 16, 2017

If there is one thing that will put someone off taking a professional development course, it is the prospect of having to do an exam at the end. We all remember the days at college or university (or both) when we would spend hours on end cramming in the library before sitting an exam we wish we were better prepared for. We are all familiar with the butterflies in your stomach that manically flutter around as you walk into the examination hall. Fortunately, if you have chosen to take the Global Energy Certification then you don’t need to worry about re-living that nightmare. For starters, it is all online so no there is no draughty exam hall to haunt you! Here are a few tips to help you breeze through the GEC examination.

Read the Handbook & Study Guide

Not only did NRG Expert create the GEC to help people turn themselves into energy experts, they also created a Handbook & Study Guide to complement the course. Within this piece of literature, students will find all kinds of valuable information about what to expect with the examination. Knowing what topics and what kinds of questions are likely to come up will infinitely help individuals prepare for the exam. The handbook also contains a glossary of technical jargon that will be incredibly useful for both the exam and your future career.

Don’t Leave it All to the Last Minute

The same advice goes for pretty much every situation you could find yourself in. Do not leave everything until the last moment or you will find yourself engulfed in an abyss of stress. An excellent way to stay on top of your revision is to work out when your exams are then make a study timetable to help you plan when you are going to revise certain topics. If you know that you struggle with a specific module then you can make sure you allocate more revision time to that and less to the ones you feel confident with already.

Learn As You Go

If you want to be really prepared then you can start your studying from the moment you begin the course. That might seem like an odd thing to say but think about it. If you study and learn every topic as you go through the course – to the extent that you feel like you know it inside out – then you will have much less to learn when it comes to revision time in the weeks before the exam. You might need to go over a few terms or concepts but the main bulk of the information you will need will already be stored in your brain.

Form a Study Group

Forming a study group is a great way to learn without getting too bored. Because you are with other people, your studying takes on a more social element – and you can share your stress with other people who are going through the same thing. Studying with people can also be helpful if you are finding a topic difficult. Chances are someone in your group will have a good enough understanding of it to be able to explain it to you. In return you could explain something they aren’t too sure on. Explaining something to someone is a great way of consolidating your own knowledge as you are forced to articulate it in a way you wouldn’t have to in your own head.

Reward Yourself

It is very easy, in the lead up to an exam, to feel like you should be studying all the time. You end up feeling guilty if you take an hour off to watch a film or meet up with friends. That shouldn’t be the case at all. Naturally, studying should take priority but if you have studied for 6 hours in one day then there is nothing wrong with taking the evening off to do something fun – provided you were actually studying and not just scrolling through Facebook. In fact, I recommend taking the odd evening off to preserve your sanity.